Captain America 2 Directors Race Down To Two?
One of the final three shortlisted directors has opted out of the race, leaving only George Nolfi and the Brothers Russo as potential candidates.
If you believe in apparently leaked studio shortlists, the race for who will helm Marvel's Captain America 2 is down to just two names; George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau) and the brothers Joe & Anthony Russo (Welcome to Collinwood, You Me & Dupree). Marvel finally announced an April 4, 2014 release date for the Captain America sequel last week after it was reported by Vulture that Marvel were closing in on the widely erratic and diverse choices above and also director F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job, Friday), who were the final candidates to replace original helmer Joe Johnston who declined early on the opportunity to return. But now the news has come today that Gary has instead opted to helm New Line/Warner Bros.' N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton, so presumably the choices are down to two. How Marvel came up with this wacky, odd bunch of a shortlist where none of the names above have anything aesthetically or stylistically in common is beyond us, but the names certainly match Marvel's mentality of spending very little on talent and shifting money to the production itself. Testimony to this is the appointment of TV Veteran Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones) to helm the Thor sequel last year. Vulture previously told us the Russo brothers, who are looking to get into the action genre having recently signed on to direct the Dwayne Johnson starring vehicle Ciudad, are favourites to land the gig, their sources saying at the time regarding the Marvel head Kevin Feige; " likes to see if he gets along with people before he'll decide about spending the next two years with them. And apparently, they hit it off with Kevin in the room." Personally I would think Nolfi, who is a decent enough filmmaker when working from a good script, would be a better choice but the Russo brothers certainly think they can do action... so we'll see. Production on the Captain America sequel is likely to shoot around a year from now so plenty of time to get that script right. Incidentally the screenwriters of Captain America: The First Avenger Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are back scribing the sequel right now. As for the film, Marvel officially describe the logline as; "Steve Rogers continues his affiliation with Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D and struggles to embrace his role in the modern world." Which gives away that the movie will be set in the modern day, which was to expected. Now can we expect Chris Evans' Steve Rogers to get that dance with an elderly Peggy Carter (played by Hayley Atwell in the original)? I think there's a huge chance... would bet my house on it.